E-mails with special characters aren’t just a blast to write, they could potentially help your e-mails get more opens and clicks – if you’re using them correctly. Why are emoji becoming popular in e-mail marketing campaigns? Because they grab your attention much quicker than plain text, plus they convey a sense of fun or something special as you’re scrolling through your e-mail. Also, emojis save space and manage to convey emotions that sometimes words can’t.

Here are a few pointers on how to use them to your best advantage:

1.Use online sites to find emojis/emoticons – There are a number of websites where you can find emojis/emoticons that can be used in e-mails. Simply copy the emoji that you want and paste it into your subject line.

2.Tone – Will emoji fit your tone? If you have a serious brand, say one that handles financial data, emoji might seem unprofessional to your customers. Ask yourself if quirky symbols or smiley faces fit your brand and make sure you test on small segments of your audience to measure how your larger subscriber base will react.

3.Audience demographics – If you market to millennials, emoji may hit the mark because they’ve become part of their daily life. That’s not to say that older customers won’t embrace them, but if you market to an older population who may not find them engaging, be sure to test before you implement them.

4.Make it relevant – With so many emoji, you can usually find one that will complement your message. You don’t have to rely on the most popular emoji every time.

5.Test to make sure your audience responds well – Before using emoji, run split tests to see how your customers react to them. In a split test, you’ll send one group of customers an e-mail with an emoji in the subject line, and send another group the same e-mail minus the emoji. You can use the difference in open rate to decide whether emoji are a good fit for your audience.

6.Test to make sure emoji display properly – Before you send your e-mail out to a large group, you’ll want to see how emoji render in different e-mail clients, and on different devices. It’s better to catch the problem early and troubleshoot before you send the e-mail to your subscribers.

7.Your e-mail should live up to its subject line – It should go without saying, but fill up your e-mail with good content that’s relevant to your subject line. Emojis can be considered micro-microcontent. In other words, teasers to micro-content. So, if your e-mail is a flop, an emoji isn’t going to help the situation.

8.Don’t Overuse Emoji – Don’t use an emoji just for the sake of using it. Make sure it is relevant to your campaign. Adding a bunch of happy faces and hearts is probably not going to get you great results. More than likely your reader will be annoyed and delete your e-mail before opening it. Especially if you do it frequently. It can also convey a lack of professionalism if people are seeing cutesy symbols that have no relevance to your brand or message.

These are just a few pointers to get you started in using emojis, so that you stand out and grab attention.